Update - Long Overdue

I am sorry that it has been so long since my last post. We have been rather busy and I must admit I have enjoyed my little "sabbatical" from my computer. For the past week I haven't even touched my computer except to charge our ipod and have used my Hubby's to check my email real quick when I have gotten a chance.

We are finally home. Not in our own place yet, but home! We have been home for 1 week now after spending several days with our dear friends Tony and Shayna and visiting with Shayna's family. We had so much fun there and you can see a couple pictures here. We played lots of Uno Attack and had some yummy cheesecake with strawberries our last night. Sadly, I forgot to take out my camera during our stay there :( and so wish I had taken some pictures! I had intended too, but the only time it crossed my mind was when it was inaccessible.

It is strange to think that it has been over 4 months since we started out on our first Book Tour, but it is also so exciting to be done and wonder what God has in store for us now! :)

The prenancy is going well. Here is a picture of me at 15 weeks and my friend at 25 weeks...

I am now 18 1/2 weeks along and had my first prenatal visit today. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat which the midwife had no trouble finding (she didn't have to try at all) and it was so cool! I am starting to feel some slight movement and know it will only get more intense as time goes on. :) I am sure I am feeling the baby more than I realize too, because since it is my first, I don't necessarily figure out right away that what I'm feeling is the baby.

My siblings love just looking at my belly which seems to be growing little by little every day. :) They are almost as excited as I am... :)

We are starting to adjust to being home and knowing that we're not driving off to some other state in 2 weeks. :) We aren't completely settled in yet, but we're getting there. I am enjoying catching up with our families. Even though we all talked on the phone and skyped several times while we were gone, it's not the same as being in person.

There's an update for you all. :) I will try to make sure I don't let 2 weeks go by before posting again. There is just so much other stuff going on to keep me busy right now that I'm hardly getting a chance to go online at all never mind write a blog post. :)

No, I'm Not Dead :)

I know, I know, there has not been a new post in over week! I am still alive, I just don't have wireless internet access and am not getting much computer access either. Sad to say, you may not get much of a real post for the next week or two.

Everything is going well. We are in North Carolina and enjoying visiting some of Scott's family in between book events. I am finally completely out of the first trimester sickness stuff and am just waiting to get home and go to my eye doctor to see about helping my headaches/migraines become less of an issue as currently they are a daily occurrence! :) (No, it is NOT fun!)

Baby seems to be doing well and I can't wait to here the heartbeat when I have my first prenatal visit! I must say, I am TOTALLY siked about this baby!!!!!!

That's about it for now. My eyes can't take much time on the computer without giving me a headache and my head is reminding me that I've been on here too long already.

Week 13

Today I am 13 weeks along in the pregnancy! I am just SOOOO excited! I'm really hoping that the baby is a girl (although I'll be happy either way). I have had 3 dreams so far about the baby being a girl or holding a newborn girl (didn't figure out who's baby it was before waking up). So, we'll see.... :) I am doing well. The past few days have been pretty rough with feeling very nauseous after eating anything. It is beautiful weather here in Georgia. Yesterday it was raining and it was still fifty degrees out. I just love when the sun is shining and I go outside and it actually feels like the sun is shining because it is so warm. :) Of course, have I taken advantage of this nice weather and gone for a walk? Not yet, but I'm planning to. :)

Here is my first "baby bump" picture. Not much yet, but I wanted to start when I am barely showing so I (and anyone else) can see the progression each week.

On Saturday Scott was doing a signing at a mall and I decided to walk through some stores (imagine my delight when I found a Motherhood Maternity store there). I found this jacket (I'm always wearing one of these, and 2 of mine don't fit anymore because they are too tight if I zip them up) and Scott said I could get it. I was so excited!!! :)


Then Scott was looking around at all their sale items (the jacket was on sale too, I was so happy) and found this outfit and told me to try it on because he really liked it. So I did, and he said we should get it. It's so nice when my husband is looking for things for me. :) I don't remember even seeing this outfit when I was looking around before.

So, it's official, I have bought my first maternity clothes. :) They are SOOOO comfortable! You can't see much of the pants in the above picture, but they are cotton and are so comfy! My husband has GREAT taste! :)

As you may notice in all of these pictures, I am now wearing only my glasses. I have a lovely tendency to get headaches that turn into migraines almost every day and my contacts do NOT help in that area. So for now I am just sticking to my glasses. I just hope I can wear my contacts again by the time the baby's born. I miss my contacts!!!! I forgot how quickly one's glasses get dirty! :)

I haven't been up to too much lately other than accompanying Scott on his book signings (which we had every day last week). We are enjoying a few days rest before it starts again. :) We can't wait to get home (to CT) and stay in the same place for more than 3 weeks! :)

Week 9 (and an update)

Hello to all my blog readers! This past Saturday we left Sunman, IN to go to a booksigning before making our way to Missouri. We spent Saturday night in a hotel and stayed up watching movies (which wasn't a good idea considering that we had a LOT of driving ahead of us on Sunday) and just having fun being together. Of course, staying up late meant that I was VERY hungry at 12:15 am. So, I decided to go downstairs and see if there was anything interesting in the vending machines. I know, I know, what I found there was not healthy, but nothing would have been open, and I just needed some food. :)

Sunday morning I typed our destination into the gps while Scott finished putting our luggage back in the car. We were delighted to see that it was 11:15 and we were supposed to arrive there at 3:08. That meant only 4 hours of driving (of course we knew that with stops it would take us a little longer to get there. We were driving along and when we were less than an hour from our destination, I started getting suspicious. The gps said we still had approximately a total of 100 miles to go, but it was after 3 o'clock and our arrival time was 3:50 (remember... all those stops? :) ). I wondered if the clock had gotten messed up on the gps so took it down to examine it. Sure enough, instead of saying 3:15 (like the clock on the dashboard said), it said "2:15". At first I couldn't figure it out. Then I realized that we must have changed time zones, which meant we had close to 2 hours to go still. But we finally made it just after 4pm, delighted to meet our new hosts (who are very nice, by the way). :)

So, on to the title of this post. :) I am now 9 weeks along in my pregnancy and the baby is growing a lot! And, in case anyone was wondering, it is certainly taking all it can get from Mama. :) I have not been feeling well pretty much all the time, with lots of headaches and my stomach is always uncomfortable. I am having to be very careful about making sure that I'm eating all that I need (which I haven't been too good at so far).

The Baby's ears are fully developed now as well as it's arms and legs and it's fingers and toes. It is just incredible to me, how much the baby grows in 1 week. Our God is so awesome! I feel so honored that God would bless us with this Little One and that there is a miracle happening inside of me. It makes me want to take care of myself all the more! I am so excited!

Go check out my Hubby's blog to see a couple pictures from the past week.

Happy New Year

2010

Happy New Year to all my Blog-readers! :) I meant to do this post yesterday, but as a result of probably too much "bad-for-me" food, late at night on New Year's Eve, and other things, I was not feeling well yesterday. So here I am, doing the post, a day late. However, since it is only January 2nd of 2010, I think, I hope, I will be forgiven. :)

We had a small gathering on New Year's Eve, and about 45 minutes before the new year rolled in, we decided to go around the room and share our favorite things about 2009. Of course, that got me thinking, and so I'd like to share some of my favorite things from 2009 here, with you all. :)

• Marrying my Husband!
• Finding out twice, that I was/am pregnant.
• How my family did all that they could to make my dreams (my Wedding) come true
• Getting to spend 2 weeks with both of our families before leaving for the tour.
• Making new friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Thank you Lord, that Scott set up booksignings in northern Indiana!)

There are so many things that I am thankful for about 2009, but there are just a few. Now it's your turn. What is one (or a few :) ) of your favorite things about 2009?????

I am greatly excited to see what the Lord has in store for me, for us, in 2010. I would greatly appreciate all your prayers with this new pregnancy. Prayers, for me as well as the baby. I am not worried about miscarrying. I know that everything is in God's hands, and no matter what happens, I trust Him completely and I am so happy to have another life inside of me again!

Our Trip So Far - In Pictures

We arrived safely in Sunman, IN at 7:30 last night after doing 2 book signings en route. We so enjoyed our stay at the Richardson's house! I've made new, dear, friends, and we can't wait to go back. I have taken lots of pictures since we left New Jersey, and so I thought I would do a post about our trip so far, in pictures! :) So, here we go:

We left New Jersey Wednesday morning at 9:00. As we were driving through Pennsylvania, we drove through several tunnels. Here is our view as we headed into the first or second one (I can't remember which one)

Here is our view, driving through the tunnel. Scott loves to drive through tunnels, but I have yet to experience it myself, so I just take his word for it, for now at least. :)

We arrived safely in Pennsylvania, however it was raining constantly. Here are a couple pictures from the concert.

Shane Barnard (Bethany Dillon's Husband)

Bethany Dillon, singing and playing. She and her Husband are very talented on the Guitar!

This was during the Intermission

After taking a nap when we first arrived at the Richardson's on Thursday, I taught the younger girls how to play Parcheesi and from that point on, when anyone had a free moment, Parcheesi was brought out. :)

On Saturday, I stayed "home" while Scott went back to the book signing he was at the night before. We played Apples to Apples (Bible Edition) and took lots of pictures :)

All my new, dear, friends!

I didn't get any pictures :( but, Susannah, Jessica, and I played Monopoly, and the game lasted a total of 6-8 hours. We had a blast playing!

Sitting around the dinner table, our last night there.


On our way to the second book signing on Sunday, waiting for a train to go by... :)

At Kelsie's!!!

Sunday was Scott's birthday, and Kelsie (and her family) helped me surprise him with a celebration after we got to their house. Scott had no idea. The poor guy, thought he wasn't getting a cake or anything other than birthday greetings, but "little, did he know." :)


That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!!

Drive from NJ to PA to IN

After a total of 14 hours on the road (including stops for fuel and a 1 hour stop for a nap), we arrived in Mentone, IN around 7:30 this morning. We drove the 6 ½ hours from New Jersey to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania for the Shane & Shane “Glory in the Highest” concert Wednesday night. Just before we arrived in Beaver Falls, we started toying with the idea of not staying the night in a hotel and driving straight through instead. I told Scott I was game to do whatever he was up to, and so after a few more quiet moments of thinking, he said “I think we’ll drive through the night.” So after the Concert, just before 11 o’clock (PM!) we headed back onto the highway.

The drive through Pennsylvania was uneventful for the most part, except for around 11 in the morning when after staying very close on our tail for quite some time, a very large 18-wheeler decided to pass us (we were in left-lane going at a decent speed). We had no problem with the truck passing us, but then, knowing that he was still beside us (he knew we had a trailer, and his cab had just passed the front of the car), at a high speed he started moving back into our lane, and he wasn’t even halfway past us yet. We hit the brakes, and the back end of the truck just barely missed us. I will admit that I had to work very hard, the rest of the trip to keep myself from getting nervous every time an 18-wheeler was passing us.

Scott's favorite part about driving through PA was that we got to drive through 5 tunnels (through mountains!). I have not yet gotten a chance to drive through a tunnel, but Scott says it's lots of fun! :)

We are very blessed to be staying with our new friends from the Seven Sisters blog. We are greatly enjoying our stay! Tomorrow I am looking forward to spending the entire day visiting while Scott goes back to the bookstore we were at tonight. We are going to try to not go to bed so late tonight as we did last night, but we plan on staying up late again tomorrow night! I so enjoy making new friends and getting to know other lovely Christian young ladies! I have been thanking the Lord this week for all the people that He has brought into my life and for new friends!!!!!!

(Above picture taken by my Husband at Harkness park in 2007)

New Jersey

Wow, does time get away from me! I can't believe we're already about to leave New Jersey! It has been 5 days since we left our beloved Connecticut. I am pleased to announce that there were no tears. They came very close to breaking through, but I held them back and made it out the door without allowing them to fall. Albeit, the last 2 minutes of saying "goodbye" to my family was a bit "rushed" as my Sister put it, but I did not want to start crying when we were so close to the door. I hugged my parents one last time and almost broke down, but I smiled and said "see you soon." :) God definately knew what I was going to need, because as it turned out, at the time that we were ready to say goodbye to my family on Thanksgiving night, my 11 cousins, 2 aunts, 1 uncle, and Grandparents were all there and half of the family were watching a funny movie and everyone else was playing games, playing with toys, or whatever. It definately helped that everyone was a little distracted. 5 months isn't that long, and with the technology that we have, it is very easy to stay in touch with our loved ones. Besides, it is always better leaving everyone with cheerful attitudes than being emotional and all sad when there really is no need for it.

4:oo Friday morning came very quickly for me, but I was up and in the shower by 4:05. Scott was up and ready for the day by the time I was done and we got what little stuff was left all gathered up before taking a few minutes to eat breakfast and chat with his family before we left. However, being SO early in the morning and the fact that although my body was functioning, it wasn't fully awake, I was not able to eat more than a few bites of oatmeal before feeling a little sick. Scott went outside to hook up the trailer while I finished getting things ready, and we discovered that it was POURING outside! We said goodbye and made it to the book signing in Waterford safely, and by 2:45 we SOLD THEM OUT! We did take a long break mid-morning for some breakfast. :)

We arrived safely in New Jersey around 6:15, quite tired! :) The past 5 days have been great! Our Hostesses have been terrific, and we are so blessed to have been able to stay with them.

Tomorrow morning we'll be heading to Beaver Falls, PA and then on to IN on Thursday!

Over the past week I have been thinking about how blessed I am to have my Husband. I love him with my whole heart and can't thank the Lord enough for putting him in my life. I love watching and listening to Scott as he talks to different people about his book and I am so proud of him for following his dream. Back in the begining of our relationship we were researching the possibility of starting our own Publishing House and what that would mean for us. I am SO glad that I encouraged him to follow his dream and not to let anything deter him from doing what he needed to do even if it was a risk. To all you married women, I encourage you to take a moment and thank God for your Husband. And be specific! Don't just say "thank you Lord, for my Husband." Think about the things you appreciate about your husband and be specific in your prayer.

The Journey has begun!

Hey everyone, just a quick update today.

We arrived safely in New Jersey at 6:15 last night. Scott just updated on his blog, so go check it out here : Book Tour Begins.

I'll update with my own post soon! :)

Attitude and Challenges

I apologize to all my blog readers that it has been so long since I last posted. The past week and a half have been quite full and I have not spent a lot of time on the computer (which, contrary to what some believe, is not necessarily a bad thing).

Last Friday (November 6th) I took my sister Ice Skating to celebrate her 13th birthday (which isn't until December, but since I won't be here, we had to celebrate it early). We had a blast! There were a couple people on the rink when we got there, but they left while we were putting our skates on, and we had the whole rink to ourselves, the entire time we were there! We had such a great time!

Yesterday Scott spoke to over a hundred students (4-8th grade) at a school. As always, I was amazed at how good my husband is with kids and how well he spoke. I wasn't surprised, but once again, I thanked the Lord for giving me such a good man, for my Husband. I am truly blessed.

If anyone is interested in a 30-day challenge, I encourage you to go to the Revive Our Hearts website and consider taking 1, or maybe even 2 of the challenges there. I have taken the Husband Encouragement Challenge, and the Choosing Gratitude Challenge. Every day I get an email from both challenges with encouragement and goals/challenges for the day.

The Lord has been working in my heart on having an "Attitude of Gratitude." I have no idea how this all started, or even when. All I know is that the Lord has slowly been laying on my heart different things to think about or to work on, and it's brought me to where my goal is to have a thankful heart.

Here are a couple of questions that you can ask yourself to see where your attitude is at:

When something unexpected (or unplanned) happens, how do I respond? Am I able to switch gears, be flexible, and eagerly "go with the flow"? Or do I feel resentment or bitterness that my plans now have to be changed?

When a child breaks something (just by accident), that perhaps was even very dear to you, do you scold them and send them to their room after insisting they clean it up by themselves? Or do you bend over to help them, letting them know that it's okay, you understand it was just an accident, and it's not that important?

Our heart attitude effects how we respond. Look at how you respond to "big" things, and then you'll know how you're responding to little things. I've written more on attitudes here. I have found that it is very easy to let little things bother me, or to let my attitude be effected by the attitudes around me. So I have worked very hard on not being bothered by little things and not letting others determine what my attitude is going to be.

Therefore, one of the things the Lord has been teaching me, is that keeping my focus on Him and on being thankful, taking every situation (even the smallest ones) and finding something I can be thankful for, keeps my attitude, and my heart where it needs to be, with God on the throne!

Niagara Falls, NY

Finally, here is the long-awaited post...

Niagara Falls was BEAUTIFUL! We drove up to New York on Friday. The scenery on our way there was beautiful as well, even though it started raining at some point and rained the rest of the day. What a perfect time for travelling, this last month has been. As we've been travelling through Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York (which included parts of Pennsylvania as we crossed the border for awhile) we've travelled over many mountains and the trees are changing their colors. The bright Red, Yellow, Gold, Orange, Brick red/brown, and still Green leaves have made for very pleasant travelling. It is impossible to describe the beauty in all the scenery we've seen. We serve an AWESOME Creator!

(Notice the Falls directly to the left of the Rainbow, in the background)

Our original plan was to visit the Falls Friday evening when we got up there, but we got a later start in the morning than we had planned, and by the time we got to the area, it was almost dark and it was pouring. We spent the night in an "interesting" motel. :) It was pretty dingy but it was cheap, we were tired and we figured we'd stay at a nice hotel on Saturday night (which we did, and it had a heated pool and jacuzzi! :) ). So we decided that we'd go to bed early and get up to go to the falls for 8am. We didn't have to be at the book signing in Buffalo (20 minutes away) until Noon, so we had 4 hours!

On our way to the Falls we ate the rest of the fruit I had brought from the day before, and we figured we'd stop for breakfast after we had gotten our fill of the Falls. :) I brought my little "Point & Shoot" and Scott brought his nice Camera with all his nice lenses! Scott took a couple hundred pictures and they all are beautiful, but I haven't put any of those on my computer yet, so you'll have to be satisfied with the ones from my camera for now. Scott did post a few pic's on his blog though.

There was a constant rainbow the entire time we were there. And, you could see both ends of the Rainbow! It was breathtaking! :)

When we woke up in the morning, it was cloudy out and looked like it might start raining any minute, but nothing was going to stop us from going, so we headed out. As we started driving, the sun started breaking through the clouds, and by the time we parked our car, the sun was shining brightly and the clouds we starting to completely disappear. By the time we left it was cloudy again, but we felt so blessed that the Lord gave us bright blue skies, and let us see the Falls in all its splendor!

In this picture (below) you can see the mist rising up from the Falls behind me. When you walked down the "steps" in the second picture below, it was as if you were walking into the rain (but there were ZERO clouds in the sky), because of the mist.

We had to do a lot of walking to get to the "observation walks" (below) but I LOVED it! Because it had rained during the night, the Sun was shining through the trees, and you could smell the freshly fallen, damp leaves. I love that smell! Fall is my favorite season, and walking through the park that morning, I was reminded of all the reasons why I love it! :) We know our God is an awesome God and His creation is incredible, but we couldn't stop talking about it as we were walking to the Falls and then again on our way back to the car.

This was another "Fall" (or whatever you would call it) that you can see from where all the above pictures were taken.


Here's my handsome Husband doing one of his favorite things.... taking good pictures! (He's really good at doing it too! :) )

As for other news, we are completely out of the apartment. We gave the keys back yesterday. Our storage unit that seemed so big when we got it, is now completely stuffed! I still have some stuff to organize, here at my parents. Some of the things that I brought over here are stuff that I didn't have time to organize and consolodate before we left the apartment, so I will be working on that this week, as well as going through the stuff of mine that is still here from when I got married. It's great to be spending more time with my Family right now. I'm really going to miss them while we're gone, but I know it will go by quickly. :)

We are enjoying a quiet weekend, the only weekend for some time that we have had no book signings. We left it open because of the moving, and we're so glad we did! Not having the apartment now, is a relief because we're another big step closer to leaving for the tour. We're so excited! We can't wait! We leave in less than 4 weeks now.

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Now here's a question for all my blog readers: What is the most beautiful place you've been to, or the most beautiful day you remember?

Leave a comment with your answer! :)